Circuit

University of Maryland honors faculty members elected to National Academies

The University of Maryland held a reception April 28 for faculty members who had recently been elected to the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering.

“All prizes are designed to create envy,” said university President Dan Mote. “They make everyone else say, ‘I’ve got to work harder.’ They make everyone else jealous as can be.”

Ben Shneiderman, professor of computer science, was elected into the National Academy of Engineering for his work on software development, human-computer interaction and computer visualization. Also elected to that academy were aerospace engineering Professor Emeritus John Anderson and mechanical engineering Professor Ali Mosleh, for his work with Bayesian methods and risk assessment.

Faculty members elected to the National Academy of Sciences included economics Professor Maureen Cropper, for her work on environmental economics; geology Professor Roberta Rudnick for her work on the origin and evolution of continents; physics Professor John Weeks for his work in applied physical science, and Adjunct Professor of Astronomy Neil Gehrels for his work on gamma-ray astronomy. Gehrels is also chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard.

Democrats will vote on an appropriations package to reopen all the federal agencies shuttered during the partial shutdown, but the lack of wall funding will likely means the measure won't get a vote in the Senate.